Keeping the Bears in Yakima
Drawing of possible new Yakima Bears Stadium
The city of Yakima may have to step up to the plate financially to keep professional baseball in Yakima for the long term.
The Yakima Bears say in order to become profitable, the team needs a new stadium.
The team wants to build a new $20 million dollar facility on former Boise Mill property.
City leaders say taxpayers will have to pay for part of the stadium.
But they're working on finding other funding sources as well.
"We're not done yet, we're gonna help them as much as we can, we're gonna look at all the funding areas we can look at, we haven't done that yet," says city council member Bill Lover.
The Bears general manager K.L. Wombacher says the team is committed to staying in Yakima, but it can't afford to keep losing money.
While money is tight, leaders are worried Yakima might lose the Bears if they don't help the team with the stadium project.